At first glance, the term “retail buyer” may be mistaken to be the customer in a market setup. But in fact, being a buyer is a profession and there are people who were given the gift of being able to determine what the real customers want. If you are still puzzled about what exactly a retail buyer does, this article will help you understand better. Who knows, you might end up seeing your potential to be a buyer yourself.

Basically, a retail buyer is a business professional who purchases products intended to be sold in a retail store. Aside from this, he is responsible of analyzing the buying trend that customers follow, studying the market and determining the latest products. For instance, a fashion buyer in the clothing industry is responsible of spotting the latest fashion trends that will pique the attention of a store’s target market.

There are different aspects that determine a retail buyer’s job. Basically, the buyer must negotiate with the wholesalers and suppliers and make sure that the contract they will be dealing with is the most competitive one. For example, if the buyer finds an electronic device or gadget and knows that it fits the establishment’s market demographics, he or she must negotiate with the supplier until the device can be purchased at the lowest price possible. Ultimately, the retail buyer also brainstorms with the store’s financial operator and decide how much the product will be sold to customers.

The buyer is also given the task of managing the store’s stock inventory. If a product is selling well, the buyer needs to see to it that the product will stay in the inventory until customers are patronizing it. Basically, if the product is still on trend, customers will purchase it from another store if they do not find it in the buyer’s establishment. Thus, it is necessary for a retail buyer to manage the inventory well.

What can be considered as the most critical part of the job is forecasting the market trend. To do this responsibility well, the buyer must sit down with market analysts to determine how much budget people will spare for their shopping spree during a particular quarter of the year. This analysis will help the buyer settle if the price point for the products will be lower or higher. Essentially, the retail buyer must know the type and kind of products that customers will purchase.

The latest fashion industry news has announced a great number of varied fashion positions that eager enthusiasts must fill up. Numerous jobs abound in the fashion world. One can be a model or designer – every skilled individual is needed to take up an exciting job. Still, the industry is not just about designing or modeling – it is so broad that there are immense fashion career opportunities available to those who want them.

Best Fashion Jobs Available (Aside from Modeling and Clothes Designing):

Even if an individual has no skill or talent to start his own clothing line, there are actually tons of other opportunities that will allow him to become a part of the fashion industry. There are jobs – and not just as a model or designer – that anyone else can enjoy doing within the industry.

Fashion Merchandiser

A competent merchandiser spots anything that can be turned into the latest fashion hit. For an individual to do well as a fashion merchandiser, he must have the instinct to know if an emerging style has the potential to become a hot fashion item.

He knows wearable items that sell, and identifies ones that will forever remain as stocks in department stores. A good fashion merchandiser performs product development – from the conceptualization to the final production and marketing of the product.

Fashion Brand Manager

Anyone who is serious in selling clothes knows that he is promoting and selling a brand. The main responsibility of a brand manager is to create an image for his fashion brand. He does this by developing unique ways to present such brand to consumers. Ideally, a brand manager possesses a degree in Merchandise Product and Brand Development to do well in this career.

Accessories Designer

For the individual who believes that he has an eye for accessories, and can create ones that can make a lasting impression to people, he must consider a lucrative career in accessories designing. To do well in this job, accessories designer must go to the hottest accessories oases such as fairs and trade exhibits. From these events, he can gather helpful inspirations to create unique designers for his own line of accessories.

Fashion Buyer

Fashion buyers are responsible for maximizing the sales and profits of a fashion boutique. They are a step ahead when it comes to fashion trends. This allows them to be ready to provide clients with the clothes that will satisfy their fashion preference. Apart from the selection of merchandise for the store, a fashion buyer is involved with its promotion and sale.

Definitely, the fashion industry is one of the most vibrant industries today. This is why there has been a great supply for jobs of all types, each of which zeroes in on a particular area in fashion. Most fashion industry news point to the fact that such availability of fashion jobs will remain on the rise for a couple more years.

The apparel and fashion industry is one of the most growing industries in the world. Be it kid’s, men, or women apparels, uniforms and unisex apparels, fashion and apparel segment rules the industry. Apart from being fashionable and glamorous this industry requires all types of online and offline skills to keep going and to stay on top.

Nowadays, presence on the B2B marketplace helps the fashion and wholesale clothing to reach different segments of society irrespective of the geographical limitations and bridge a gap between clothing manufacturers and a potential buyer.

In order to have a smooth sailing through a B2B channel, here are some security tips that every buyer should keep in mind while conducting a trade with a supplier:

Identification check of the Supplier And Company:

The best way to check the authenticity and to reduce the risk of fraud while trading online is to conduct proper due-diligence before entering into any transaction. Although B2B marketplace is an easy medium to get connected with the relevant suppliers, lack of in person meetings to carry out business makes it necessary to conduct proper research before setting up any trading relations with the supplier.

Here are some steps to reduce the risk of supplier’s fraud:

A complete company profile consists of information which can be both verified and unverified. Here are few must follow steps to know the authenticity of a supplier:

Company Name along with city and province

Business type: If its manufacturer it means that the supplier is only selling products it manufactures. Manufactures are equipped and trained in specific production lines because of which they are highly specialized in their specific product line.

Trading Companies: There are some trading companies, which are independent while others own, or are owned by a manufacturing company. Although everybody tries to avoid the middleman, there are many companies in world which export their produce using Trading companies. Here is where trading companies play an important role. There can be some companies which offer no added value and dealing with those suppliers will only raise your costs.

Checking the quality of the product

It is said that a good manufacturer is not the one who is completely free of quality issues but the one who is constantly monitoring the quality during productions. Make sure that the supplier guarantees you to get back to you on time if the clothing purchase turns out to be defective and should have a proper system in place for how to manage the quality issues of clothing material. According to ISO compliance a product requires more than having a quick check before they are packed and shipped. Every supplier is required to inspect the raw materials and components before production, set up inspections during production and does a final supervision after production.

Garment Sampling

Apparel and clothing samples are very important and are meant to be developed, tested before starting the bulk production. Sampling is one of the main processes in apparel and fashion industry and plays a vital role when doing business online. As buyer place the final orders only after verifying the quality of samples.

The sample decides the ability and perfection of an exporter on how he carries out the business. It helps the buyer to judge the exporter and the organisation he belongs. If the samples are of good quality and at a reasonable price, it will naturally attract the buyers to place the order.

Doing business on a B2B portal can be a relatively new frontier but if not negotiated strategically can result in added costs and extra work hours for both a manufacturer as well as a buyer.